How does “Cryogenic Sleep” occur in the films?

[RipleyC8]

Wouldn't all the characters freeze to death as a result?

Cryonics uses temperatures below −130 °C, called cryopreservation, in an attempt to preserve enough brain information to permit future revival of the cryopreserved person. Cryopreservation may be accomplished by freezing, freezing with cryoprotectant to reduce ice damage, or by vitrification to avoid ice damage.

[SM]

I don't imagine it uses such low temperatures, but it does use something called cryocool.

[Kradan]

It's not something I really think about too much. It's part of series' iconography and just interesting "sci-fi" concept in generall. Also, even though it's often called "cryo-sleep" It doesn't realy seem to me that crew of Nostromo, Sulaco, whatever the ship Purvis is from, Prometheus and Covenant were litteraly "freezed" - I don't see snow particles on them or any fumes coming out of tubes when they wake up. I think there's some other processes being involved - probably, some chemicals that prevent organism from getting older ? Personally, I prefer term "hyper-sleep"

And say whatever you want about it but it did a damn good job preserving Ripley between Alien and Aliens. She got only 7 years older 

P.S. I know, I know - Brett called them "freezerinos" or whatever but as SM said - it probably doesn't use that "low" temperatures and works in tandem with something else

[SiL]

It's only referred to as "hyper-sleep" in the films, but the hyper-sleep beds are referred to as "freezers". Guess you could say they're just "freezing" the ageing process, not literally freezing them?

EDIT

And just remembered Alien3 specifically says "cryogenic compartment" so ignore the above.

[SM]

Cryo is mentioned in Prometheus and Covenant too.

[Kimo]

Well at least a real animal on earth as cracked the secret of Cryogenic sleep.

[Kradan]

In regards to "hyper-sleep" - it's a gripe I have with Aliens. In second one it takes only couple of weeks to travel to LV-426, right? IMO it takes away feeling of grandness of space that you feel in Alien. I understand it from the point of story necessity and I understand that technology would improve in 57 years. But I certainly prefer it the way it was in Alien where even with FTL velocity it took months to travel from planet to planet

[TheSailingRabbit]

They pretty much state in Isolation that it took 2-3 weeks to get to Sevastopol, which wasn't that long after Alien. The FTL tech either improved quickly, or the Torrens had a much better drive than the Nostromo (even though they're the same ship class).

[SM]

The leap in FTL tech came prior to 2137 and the Torrens maybe M-class but it's a different make and model to the Nostromo.

The grandness of space is still there if one considers that the area of explored space is around 20 parsecs from Earth.  The Milky Way is between 50,000 - 60,000 parsecs across and averages 300 parsecs thick.

[SpaceKase]

The Colonial Marine's Tech Manual goes some way towards addressing this. Citing the Nostromo's speed capability as about...
0.1 to 0.12 light years per sidereal day (40-45 cee ) while fully laden, and around 4 times faster when unladen, about...
0.42 lys per sidereal day (153 cee), which is still a trip of about 3 mos, back in 2122, in a ship that's not really well maintained.

Flash forward 15 years to 2137. The Torrens departs Sol on Nov 15th and arrives at Sevastopol Station on Dec 11th, about 26 days later.  This gives the Torrens a fast, but not emergency, speed of about...
1.5 lys/sidereal day (550 cee). Which kinda makes sense, the Torrens is working as a courier, instead of a refinery hauler and is much better cared for than the Nostromo was, Verlaine has no doubt kept her maintained and upgraded with the latest engine tech.

Skip ahead about 42 more years to 2179. The heavily armored Sulaco has a fuel efficient high cruising speed of about...
0.74 light years per sidereal day (~271 cee) . But, if needs be, it could haul ass on full burn and pull around...
1.8 light years per sidereal day (~666 cee) and get from Sol to Zeta 2 Reticuli in a breakneck 21 days.

The grandness of space is still there if one considers that the area of explored space is around 20 parsecs from Earth.  The Milky Way is between 50,000 - 60,000 parsecs across and averages 300 parsecs thick.

True that, even in the late 2600's when the human sphere is nearly 1000 lys in diameter, that's still only about 1% of the galaxy.

[SM]

Not sure the CMTM is the authority on ship speeds...

[SpaceKase]

Not sure the CMTM is the authority on ship speeds...

I'm just citing the available relevant source material, preferential to the age of the referenced work, and thus how influential that material is likely to have been upon subsequent works. It fits pretty well with what's established in the films, and there's no subsequent material undermining the baseline, only expansions upon it.

[AliceApocalypse]

A few interesting articles regarding current interplanetary human stasis considerations:

https://www.buzzworthy.com/nasa-makes-cryosleep-a-reality/

https://www.spaceworks.aero/2016-iac/

[SM]

Not sure the CMTM is the authority on ship speeds...

I'm just citing the available relevant source material, preferential to the age of the referenced work, and thus how influential that material is likely to have been upon subsequent works. It fits pretty well with what's established in the films, and there's no subsequent material undermining the baseline, only expansions upon it.

The primary source material undermines the Sulaco speed in the CMTM.

[SpaceKase]

Not sure the CMTM is the authority on ship speeds...

I'm just citing the available relevant source material, preferential to the age of the referenced work, and thus how influential that material is likely to have been upon subsequent works. It fits pretty well with what's established in the films, and there's no subsequent material undermining the baseline, only expansions upon it.

The primary source material undermines the Sulaco speed in the CMTM.

Not really.